Title: Carving Circuits from Correlative Connectomics

Speaker: Mariela Petkova, Harvard University

Abstract: Tracing the wiring diagram of a neural circuit is a powerful approach to test

computational models of brain function. Connectomics - the mapping of

neurons and their connections in the brain - poses formidable technical and

conceptual challenges. The former entails the acquisition and reduction of

vast amounts of electron microscopy image data to connectivity matrices,

achieved through multi-year, multi-team collaborative efforts. The latter

challenge is the problem of coarse-graining the connectivity matrices to

neural circuits which exhibit neural activity and function. I will describe both

challenges in the context of mapping the nervous system of a small

vertebrate - the larval zebrafish. In the same animal, we pair electron

microscopy with functional information from light microscopy to interrogate

neural circuit models for animal behavior from sensory inputs to motor output.

Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/94241764594

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